Class of 2012, welcome to Brandeis University. You must surely have worked very hard to make it here, to one of the best schools in the nation, in order to learn and to grow.Now, if you would kindly pack up and leave, we can begin working on what's really important-job training.

In an article published August 13 in the Wall Street Journal, Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute presented an alternative to the end result of the collegiate experience, the Bachelor of Arts degree. Murray advocates instead for the adoption of a certification program, culminating in an exam not unlike the one taken by students training to be certified public accountants. Murray's proposed program would not require residency, tuition or a degree, only training in the field of choice and the ability to pass a certification test. Murray posits that such a system could be applied to "purely academic disciplines" as readily as it could be applied to other vocations, whether it's a certification for paralegals, social workers, business executives, historians, writers or artists.

In Murray's view, attaining a bachelor's in college is pointless because it is expensive and time-consuming and conveys skills or knowledge that might have little to do with the ultimate occupation of the individual. Most of all, it does not necessarily demonstrate proficiency in the subject for which it is awarded. A certification test, however, would definitively illustrate the aptitude of the student in his particular area of study, thus providing future employers with a standard metric of skill by which to judge prospective job-seekers.

Sounds fine and dandy, but what Murray fails to grasp is that you have not been sent here to become little worker bees in the American hive. You are not here simply to learn a trade and begin contributing to the economy. You, and hundreds of thousands of college students all across the United States, have elected to seek an education not limited to training or certification or any single area of study. The liberal arts education you receive here will not necessarily prepare you for any particular job. What it will do, though, is expand your horizons and teach you how to grow, how to think for yourself and perhaps how to understand.

Picture yourself in Murray's world. It is nearly impossible for you ever to be able to change careers, if you become so inclined. If you lose your job, or your job is shipped abroad, your options will be limited. Indeed, all of your options will be limited in Murray's world. Whatever field you are certified in is the field you will remain in until the day you retire, with little possibility for advancement or for a new career somewhere else.

In our world, a degree English can be parlayed into a career as a historian. A degree in architecture can become a career in business. A degree in biology can become a career in law. Not one of these degrees is necessarily related to the career to which it is applied, but that is hardly the point. In our world, you can become a lawyer even if you obtained a degree in biology. You don't have to become a biologist. A liberal arts education is more than just vocational training; it introduces you to cultures from across the globe, encourages you to think critically, to question what you think you know. In an increasingly complicated world, these experiences will only become more necessary.

What Murray's proposition really threatens is the ability of young Americans-and of foreigners who choose to study in this country-to comprehend the freedoms they enjoy and, more directly, to choose to exercise those freedoms as they see fit; in particular, the freedom to choose what one wishes to do with one's life. A week before Murray's article ran, a story on National Public Radio discussed how Maine lobstermen have been working to expand their profits in troubled economic times. The lobstermen profiled, two brothers, came from a long line of lobstermen before them and knew they wanted to be lobstermen when they grew up, but their parents insisted they attend college first. The brothers attended college, graduated and then went on to become lobstermen. That was their choice. Are they better lobstermen for having been to college? Maybe. Are they more aware, more rounded citizens of this country and of the world? Absolutely.

Class of 2012, welcome to college. Enjoy your time here, relish it, and remember, whether you leave here to become an artist, a politician, a chemist or a lobsterman, you will leave here able to choose for yourself the trail you wish to blaze.